got a General in chief, one
Wimpfen, formerly under Dumouriez; also a secondary questionable General
Puisaye, and others; and are doing their best to raise a force for war.
National Volunteers, whosoever is of right heart: gather in, ye National
Volunteers, friends of Liberty; from our Calvados Townships, from the
Eure, from Brittany, from far and near; forward to Paris, and extinguish
Anarchy! Thus at Caen, in the early July days, there is a drumming and
parading, a perorating and consulting: Staff and Army; Council; Club of
Carabots, Anti-jacobin friends of Freedom, to denounce atrocious Marat.
With all which, and the editing of Bulletins, a National Representative
has his hands full.

At Caen it is most animated; and, as one hopes, more or less animated in
the 'Seventy-two Departments that adhere to us.' And in a France begirt
with Cimmerian invading Coalitions, and torn with an internal La Vendee,
this is the conclusion we have arrived at: to put down Anarchy by Civil
War! Durum et durum, the Proverb says, non faciunt murum. La Vendee
burns: Santerre can do nothing there; he may return home and brew beer.
Cimmerian bombshells fly all along the North. That Siege of Mentz is
become famed;--lovers of the Picturesque (as Goethe will testify),
washed country-people of both sexes, stroll thither on Sundays, to see
the artillery work and counterwork; 'you only duck a little while
the shot whizzes past.' (Belagerung von Mainz, Goethe's Werke, xxx.
278-334.) Conde is capitulating to the Austrians; Royal Highness of
York, these several weeks, fiercely batters Valenciennes. For, alas,
our fortified Camp of Famars was stormed; General Dampierre was killed;
General Custine was blamed,--and indeed is now come to Paris to give
'explanations.'

Against all which the Mountain and atrocious Marat must even make head
as they can. They, anarchic Convention as they are, publish Decrees,
expostulatory, explanatory, yet not without severity; they ray forth
Commissioners, singly or in pairs, the olive-branch in one hand, yet the
sword in the other. Commissioners come even to Caen; but without
effect. Mathematical Romme, and Prieur named of the Cote d'Or, venturing
thither, with their olive and sword, are packed into prison: there may
Romme lie, under lock and key, 'for fifty days;' and meditate his New
Calendar, if he please. Cimmeria and Civil War! Never was Republic One
and Indivisible at a lower ebb.--

Amid which dim ferment of Cae